Bowel Movement During Delivery Video

Male Speaker: We now have a twitter question from Alisa Beantown, who wants to know, I am in my 8th month of pregnancy, and what I am most worried about is having a bowel movement on the delivery table during delivery. How can I prevent that? Well we have all delivered babies; you do it more often then all of us and -- Lisa Masterson: I would say, right now I probably do it, a lot more often then you guys you have done it. And basically that happens all the time and it's completely normal that you do that in active phase of labor, absolutely normal. What happens is as the babies head comes down we ask you to push and that pushing movement is exactly like the movement that you have for the bowel movement. Female speaker: Yeah, you know what's happening is your colon and your rectum is right behind that the birth canal and so literally when that baby's head is coming down there its squeezing your rectum flat. If there is anything in there it's likely to come out. But the good news is Mother Nature actually helps us out a little bit here and about 48 hours before you give birth women do tend to have more bowel movements, it's often a sign that you are going into labor.

Browse Most Popular Videos

Healthline’s mission is to make the people of the world healthier through the power of information. We do this by creating quality health information that is authoritative, approachable, and actionable.

Join more than 30 million monthly visitors like you and let Healthline be your guide to better health.